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An employee whose general protections claim was struck out as an abuse of process has won leave to appeal, after the Federal Circuit Court accepted his contentions of bias had sufficient prospects of success.

The decision under appeal was "interlocutory and involve[d] matters of practice and procedure", Justice Michael Feutrill noted, but the practical effect of the orders was to dismiss the employee's claim, and there was a "risk of injustice" if he were refused leave to appeal.

In May last year, Federal Circuit Court Judge Salvatore Vasta described the former Monash University employee's 173-page statement of claim as "a huge manifesto, as to how it is that [DEI] obsessions are ruining the Australian education system".

"The problem is that that's not what this case is about. This case will only be about whether or not you have shown that you exercised a workplace right, and if so, how that connected to your dismissal," Judge Vasta said, in agreeing to strike it out.

Considering whether to grant leave to appeal that judgment, Justice Michael Feutrill first accepted that although he missed the deadline, the employee's short filing delay was due to his ignorance of the interlocutory nature of the strike-out judgment...